With around 30,000 academic journals available globally, selecting the right one for your research can be challenging. While many journals may be suitable for your field, choosing the optimal journal is crucial as it affects the impact and visibility of your work.
To begin, consider your publishing goals. Clearly defining your objectives will help identify journals that align with your aims. Researchers publish for various personal and professional reasons, so think about what matters most for your career, professional development, or research program. Some possible goals might include:
As a first step, consider: what is your publishing goal?
Defining your goal helps you identify which journals are best suited to achieve your aims. Authors publish for various personal and professional reasons, so consider what’s important for your career, professional development, or research program. Some potential goals could include:
- Advancing knowledge in your specialist field, and contributing to the development of research or debate, so that others can build upon your ideas or results
- Disseminating your findings to a wide or interdisciplinary audience, or having an impact beyond academia
- Adhering to your funder or institutional requirements
- Supporting a learned society or organisation in your subject area
- Using a particular article type or media format to convey your findings
Secondly, what is important to you in the publishing process?
As with goals, this is often personal. This could be:
- Publishing quickly
- A particular type of peer review process
- An easy or straightforward submissions process
- The option to transfer rejected papers to related journals
- Assistance with editing
